Letter to the Editor for Oct. 16, 2013

Letter writer Pete Sundin and Republicans in Congress do not like Obamacare. Yet Sundin and the Republicans offer no solution for fixing what the U.S. presently has: the most expensive and yet ineffective health insurance system among the world's First World countries.

Our counterparts in Canada and Europe provide health insurance for ALL of their citizens at almost a THIRD less cost and get better results. Why do I emphasize "third?" Because that is the profit raked off the top by extremely inefficient, profit-minded insurance companies, before they pay a dime for your medical care.

Get rid of private insurance companies and replace them with a government-run, single-payer system and what do you have? Medicare! Take a poll of Americans and ask them if they want to get rid of Medicare, which manages the health insurance of our senior citizens with a 4 percent overhead, as opposed to the corporate insurance industry's 30-plus percent. Only Tea Party types would advocate turning over Medicare to private insurance.

Obamacare has its flaws - the biggest one being it's not a single-payer system - but at least it does not leave uncovered 30 million of our poorest citizens in this most affluent country in the world. And under Obamacare insurance companies may not turn anyone down for pre-existing health problems.

Better than playing political brinkmanship, why don't Democrats and Republicans in Congress get behind a single-payer system?